Born in Leiden, Holland,
raised in Calgary, Canada, Karel began his professional musical career
in
1970. He first studied piano under Henry L. Peters, then took
jazz instruction from Ray Petch. In 1973, he studied jazz
arranging and
composition at the
prestigious Berklee College of Music
in Boston, Massachusetts, and
completed a degree in secondary music and mathematics education at the University of Victoria
in 1981.

Karel has played throughout the world in almost every imaginable venue.
He has led bands for Howie
Mandel, Rich Little (and his lesser known
brother Fred), Bob Newhart, Shari
Lewis (and Lambchop), and Ted Knight,
played with the Valdy, Moody
Blues, Powder Blues
Band, Jan Arden, The Shirelles,
and Leslie Gore, and opened for the Temptations
(with vocalist April Gislason) and solo for legendary
jazz
guitarist John
Pizzarelli.

Karel has composed extensively for film, television and video
productions. Television
and film
credits include a great
many themes and scores for documentaries, news, drama and children's
programs broadcast world-wide.

He has produced more than sixteen of his own recordings, including
several for the Canadian Naturescapes series,
which have been distributed world-wide, two jazz trio CDs and many solo
piano CDs. His new solo project, birdsong in the parkade,
was recorded in August, 2017 on a magnificent Steinway piano at the
lowest level of Victoria's View Street parkade, with music based on
bird songs collected on a cross-Canada camping trip he and his wife
Brenda took in 2016.

Karel has played on countless recordings for other artists. In 2011, he
produced and played on Canadian folk legend and icon Valdy's latest CD, and more
recently he has performed and arranged on
recordings for Maureen
Washington and Edie Daponte.

In the field of children's music, Karel was musical director and
keyboardist on Babes, Beasts and Birds by Pat
Carfra (the Lullaby Lady), chosen by the Ladies' Home
Journal
as one of the six all-time best children's bedtime albums, keyboardist
and arranger on John Demers'My Backyard,
and George Dixon's series of children's musical
stories. He has also written a series of music for
interactive toys made by Fisher Price.